President Donald Trump continued calls for funding for his border wall on Saturday as the partial government shutdown entered its 22nd day, making it the longest ever in US history.
The shutdown has meant that hundreds of thousands of US government employees are staying home or working without pay, and that museums and parks have had to close.
Friday was the first day without pay for many of the employees.
Senators and congressmen have left Washington for the weekend, and there are no indications as to when Republicans and Democrats are likely to meet again with Trump to discuss a way out of the crisis.
Trump blamed the Democrats for the impasse in a series of tweets on Saturday and insisted: “I do have a plan on the Shutdown.”
He stuck to his guns over funding for a border wall on the southern border of the United States, tweeting that the wall was a campaign promise and “elections have consequences!”
By extending into Saturday, the shutdown is now longer than the 1995-96 shutdown that previously held the title for longest ever.
Both shutdowns began over government spending.
The current shutdown is centred on 5.7 billion dollars Trump wants Congress to approve for building a wall on the US-Mexico border.
Trump says the wall is necessary for national security, while Democrats refuse to fund it, slamming the proposed barrier as ineffective and a waste of tax dollars.
With no negotiations scheduled, the possibility that a national emergency would be declared, which would give Trump a way to circumvent Democrats in Congress on the wall, remained in play.
Trump said Thursday that he was “not prepared to do that yet” but also said he would if he didn’t get results through negotiations.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a top Republican lawmaker and Trump ally who has been negotiating with Democrats, on Thursday threw his support behind the idea of declaring a national emergency.
The controversial move would face legal challenges, as experts and Democratic lawmakers say the situation on the US-Mexico border does not constitute a national emergency.
